On April 25, 2012, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its long-awaited decision in the Androgel litigation, Federal Trade Commission v. Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. et al., affirming the District Court’s dismissal of the FTC’s complaint. This decision continues a trend of losses in appellate courts for plaintiffs making “pay for delay” allegations, including three straight in the 11th Circuit in which the FTC has participated as a party or as amicus. (“Pay for delay” is the term by which the FTC and private plaintiffs sometimes attack patent litigation settlements related to Hatch Waxman Act “Paragraph IV” filings, invoking the antitrust or unfair competition laws and alleging that a brand pharmaceutical manufacturer has provided a benefit to a generic in order to cause the generic to “delay” entry into the market.)
The decision is available on the 11th Circuit's website at this link:
http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/201012729.pdf.
Observers who follow Hatch Waxman Act legal issues were watching this litigation closely. The FTC had identified it as an important case that the FTC expected to win (making statements to this effect in March of 2012, during the annual meeting of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section). The oral argument was unusually long, raising expectations in some quarters that the FTC might fare better than in previous cases. But the court ultimately appears to have decided to issue a simple opinion, emphasizing its Valley Drug (11th Cir. 2003), Schering (2005), and Andrx (2005) decisions as controlling precedent.
Nevertheless, the decision is sure to be cited widely due to the court’s colorful diction and its clarity on a key issue. As to the key issue, the court emphasized that defendants need not prove that the patent was likely to be invalid, and that a plaintiff’s allegation of “51 percent” likelihood of patent invalidity would not be enough to sustain an antitrust claim against a patent settlement, even where the complaint alleges “pay for delay.” As to diction, the following four passages from the opinion give a flavor of the court’s words:
As of April 26, the FTC had not announced whether it plans to appeal. As a government entity, the agency normally would have 60 days to make that determination.
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Leiv BladThis article was originally published by Bingham McCutchen LLP.